10 Blog Topics That Generate Tons of Traffic (and how to promote them!)

Whether you’re just starting out with your blog, or you’ve been blogging forever, everyone can use a few new ideas here and there. I write for a living, but even I need inspiration sometimes! So I put together this list of my favorite traffic-generating blog post ideas. Happy writing!

1. How-To

What do you do when you need to know how to do something? You Google it. And guess what? So does everyone else.

Side note: When I wrote my blog on Pecan Pie, I wrote it because I had just done it and I was proud of myself. Ironically, the next day, “Pecan Pie” was trending on Pinterest! Win-win!

So, the best way to make sure you write posts that will generate a lot of traffic, is to make sure you know what is trending at the time.

2. Recipes

Since I mentioned it above, I figured it would be a perfect segue… Recipes are fantastic traffic generators because they can be shared to Pinterest!

If you spend a lot of time on Pinterest like I do, you’ll know that recipes are one of the most popular pins, which means if you write a recipe blog and share it on Pinterest, you’ll likely have a viral blog on your hands in no time! (Or you’ll just fall into a deep Pinterest black hole of no return. It happens to me daily, it’s fine)

3. Guides

Are you an expert in something? Whatever it is (baking, gardening, business, childcare), if you have tons of tips and expertise, putting together an essential guide can land you tons and tons of traffic.

People are always looking for “ultimate guides” online, so creating one will guarantee a spike in traffic and interest.

I love working with brands and I love reviewing products, because it’s fun and helpful to readers. Product reviews are a high traffic generator for two reasons:

Shoppers constantly search for reviews and testimonies from real people (aka bloggers)

Brands often repost product reviews or sponsored content

6. Contests

Who doesn’t love free stuff? If you’re lucky enough to be hosting a contest, you will also be lucky enough to reap the benefits of more blog traffic! Everyone loves contests, and if you host one on your blog, it will be clicked on, engaged with, shared, reposted. You get it.

7. Advice

Just like the How-To and Questions blog topics above, “advice” blogs are extremely popular. A few weeks ago, I was actually searching for advice online and instead of finding news articles or medical journals, the first things that popped up were blogs!

If you have advice to offer, post a blog about it! Chances are, there are a bunch of people who need to hear what you have to say. And even if it doesn’t go “viral,” you’ll still be able to sleep easier at night knowing you helped at least one person with your advice. And that makes it worth it, right?

8. Travel

Have you recently gone on a trip? Are you in the middle of planning a trip? Are you a full time traveler (or at least trying to be?)

Then write about it!

When I mentioned that one of the most popular type of pins on Pinterest are recipes, the other types are travel-related. Everyone wants first-hand knowledge and tips in regards to travel, and these posts can never go wrong!

So if you’ve recently traveled or are planning to, posting a blog about it will result in traffic galore for you.

Tip: Bonus points if you write about how to travel cheaply!

9. Gift ideas

Since we’re right smack dab in the middle of the holidays, it would be wrong for me not to include a “gift ideas” blog topic.

BUT the amazing thing about these type of blogs is that they perform well any time of the year, making them evergreen (aka they never go out of style).

People are always searching for the “perfect” gift, and they’re always searching for gift guides and gift ideas, so create a really awesome one and get those views!

This is my personal favorite, and although it won’t get you the viral, crazy traffic that you’re looking for, it does give you loyal readers that keep coming back for more. By being open and letting your readers into your personal life, you’ll soon create a solid community, which is the most important thing in this blogging world.

These are my favorite traffic-generating blogs, and after working in the marketing world these are the topics I’ve found that have always performed the best for my clients, too.

Do you have any blog topics that have driven tons of traffic to your site? ⚡️

Great tips! I found my blog only really started to take off after I began posting my ‘Nine stages of’ posts featuring cat gifs (I know, super lame hahah). After that everything kept snowballing, but I’m now trying to think of ways to attract more outside traffic. I love the idea of a contest! I totally want to try that and perhaps pen some more personal posts at some point for my loyal subscribers. Thanks!!

Cat GIFs?! Sounds awesome to me! Good luck with growing your blog, it can be tricky but it’s so much fun especially when you throw in personal posts and things that mean a lot to you personally. (Or just post more cat GIFs, I mean they’re adorable and awesome so why not?!) 🙂

These are all fabulous ideas! Definitely bookmarking this page for future reference. Also totally agree about travel posts…I click on them all the time because I love seeing what others are up to and where they’ve been! I’d love to expand that section of my blog in 2018 🙂 xx

Travel posts are just the best, aren’t they? I’m looking forward to 2018 because I’ll be doing A LOT of traveling! I’m also glad you found this blog interesting/helpful, I hope these tips will help you grow your blog! 🙂

Hi there, thank you for these recommendations and for following my blog Tick Talk. I wanted to invite you to take a tour of my new blog dedicated to social justice topics. Please let me know what you think!

Unfortunately, my blog does not receive much traffic.. I must be doing something wrong.. I am a novice.. Believe it or not.. my top read was Ferrel Boy Found In Canada..
I continued looking for updates about the boy.. but after a while, wondered if I had been a naive victim of satire.. lol.. I thought all news reports had to be true 🙂